Patrick: Market Basket Deal Almost Fell Apart

Just how close did the Market Basket deal come to collapse? Governor Deval Patrick told The Boston Globe that the deal very nearly fell apart earlier in the week. Patrick, along with new Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, stepped in to help broker the deal in the final two weeks of negotiations. According to the governor, there was a point early in the week when the deal looked dead.

“There was a point at which it seemed like it wasn’t going to happen.” Patrick said the parties held one final conference call with the governors Monday morning, when the factions insisted they could get on track, “and they did.”

“There are a lot of people in both of our states who work at Market Basket and who were at risk of losing their jobs because of the disruption in the company,” he said. “Much of that disruption seemed avoidable and resolvable. It was more complicated I think than I anticipated. But we got to a good place, and more to the point they got to a good place.”

That sheds a little bit of light on the inner workings of the deal, which experienced some delays in the early part of the week. Patrick and Hassan had suggested last Friday that the deal could be reached by the end of that weekend—but judging by Patrick’s comments, it might have hit a significant snag by the time of the conference call Monday.

Arthur T. and Arthur S. Demoulas finally reached an agreement over a sale of the company to Arthur T. on Wednesday night.